


Brooklyn Boy

by Pebbles4Eyes



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies), The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, F/M, Gentle Romance, High School, Idk what i'm doing, M/M, Swearing, Violence, mention of trauma
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-06-19
Updated: 2019-06-22
Packaged: 2020-05-14 16:56:04
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 4,790
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19277518
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Pebbles4Eyes/pseuds/Pebbles4Eyes
Summary: It's the beginning of the final school year for the gang: Tony, Nat, Clint and Bruce. Everything is changing but the same as it always was and now there's a new scrawny kid with piercing blue eyes and tousled hair. Not that Tony noticed or anything.





	1. Chapter 1

The first day of Senior year had finally rolled around. After spending the whole summer in the garage trying to create and perfect his designs for robotic arms Tony was, slightly reluctantly, ready to enter back into the social world of humans. For such a techy and rich kid, it was always a wonder that Tony walked to school every day but on his way this morning he met up with Nat and Clint. Nat had moved into the Bartons’ house when she was around six after everything fell apart of her. She and Clint had become like brother and sister and were constantly promising to stay in touch after Nat went off to college next year while Clint did an apprenticeship two states away.  
“I haven’t seen you, like.. All summer?” Nat looked at Tony, “Let’s hope you’re going for the ‘pale and interesting’ thing because you look like someone locked you in a basement for the past month!” Clint laughed,  
“Hey, Tony’s always interesting. If by that you mean a nerd.”  
“Yeah, yeah. I might’ve forgotten to go outside or anything this summer but I am This close to making the perfect robotic arm! Anyway, what did you do over the summer that was so much better?” Nat gave Clint a look before turning back to Tony,  
“I wouldn’t know what he’s been up to because he... was off with Laura the whole time.”  
“Give it a rest Nat, it was barely the whole time! We went on a couple of dates, like.. Six.” Tony raised an eye-brow and the corner of his mouth but said nothing.

When they got to school it was like putting on an old sweater that fit a lot better than you thought it would. Everything felt the same as it had the year before other than the weird notion that they were now the oldest in the school. Bruce was, as always, going to be Tony’s lab partner in physics and he and Nat were in Tony’s form tutor. The main difference to last year was that Thor was gone, it was easy to forget last year that he was only an exchange student. 

It was only during American History that afternoon that Tony noticed another major difference this year. There was a new student. He may well have been in Tony’s other classes but seeing as Tony was not necessarily the most observant when it came to other members of his species, he only noticed the stranger when they’d been sitting side by side for the past twenty minutes. He was about to ask the blond boy who he was when the teacher called to him,  
“Stark! Are you paying any attention at all? What did I just say?” Tony blushed and panicked looking at the board which offered no clues. He went to look at his feet when he noticed a piece of paper had been slipped in front of him and read it aloud as subtly as he could,  
“It was in 1824 when the Federalist party ceased operations and following the election of that year the Democratic Republicans split.”

The teacher merely rolled her eyes at him and sighed,  
“Please at least try to look interested in the future, Mr Stark?” He nodded, internally trying to swallow down the adrenaline and shame of the encounter and trying to process his gratitude to the stranger who had now successfully saved his ass. Tony turned the note on his desk over and scrawled “Thanks!” on the back before slipping it back to his desk partner, sneaking a glance at the boy if he did. There was the scruffy blond hair, piercing blue eyes fixed straight ahead as though trying to reach out and beam the information straight into his brain, the surprisingly striking jaw line for someone his level of scrawny. He was a wiry kind of scrawny, like a stray dog with a fierce strength bristling close to the surface. 

When the stranger blatantly ignored the note of thanks in preference of keeping is attention on the class, Tony found himself following suit. Granted, he was also doodling some designs in his notebook and doing the occasional equation as his mind worked over the challenges of his latest mechanical project but he mostly maintained the pretence of taking notes and did absorb the occasional snippet from information that issued from the front of the class. 

When the bell rang for the end of the lesson Tony closed his notebook and followed the stranger out of class,  
“Thanks, you really saved my ass back there” Tony chuckled. The stranger turned to him as they got into the corridor.  
“You really should pay attention to history… it might not be that interesting to you but like, it is important.” Tony found himself dumbstruck. A lecture from the kid who helped him get out of a lecturing in the class? How did this new kid have the guts to lecture anyone on what must have been his first day? Tony pulled a tight smile and just nodded, leaving the kid to go back to his locker.

He walked out of the school building with his backpack and spotted his friends waiting at the gates. Nat was talking to Bruce, softly placing a hand on his arm while she listened intently to something that he was explaining to her. It was evidently something he was excited about as Tony could see his stupid grin and wild gesticulations from all the way over here and Nat was smirking but not unkindly. Clint was stood a little way from the pair, talking to Laura. She smiled at him as he brushed a piece of hair back from her face and cocked his head seeming to say something gently which made her blush. Everyone, he guessed, was coupling up because in realising they only had one year to take their shot, they had gone and taken it. He tried to walk by unnoticed, to avoid being a fifth wheel when Nat called out to him.  
“Hey! Nerd! We were just waiting for you.” Bruce smiled at him and Clint turned around pulling Laura by the hand to come and meet “the gang”.

Tony walked out of the gates surrounded by his best friends in the world. He could feel that this was going to be a good year, so long as he still had them, they could survive anything. They spent the walk talking, as we all do during the best times, about absolutely nothing: weird things that happened or almost happened during their days, things that could happen in the next year, things that would never happen but it was nice to believe. Soon Clint peeled off from the group to walk Laura home, pursued by a gentle mocking from Nat. Then Bruce peeled off too as he lived in a slightly different area of town. As he left he lingered, looking at Nat, for just a little longer than was normal before giving a quick smile and wave and heading down a side-street. 

A soon as Bruce was out of sight Tony gave Nat a raised eyebrow look.  
“So..?”  
“So what?”  
“So is anything happening there?” Tony gestured to the direction Bruce had left in and Nat did her unique cross between a grin and a smirk,  
“We’ll see.” Tony slowed down and caught her eye,  
“Be careful, yeah?” He held her gaze and her bravado softened a little,  
“Tony, the last thing I want to do is hurt him. Trust me.”

They walked in silence until the crossroads where their paths split. Just as they were about to part Tony remembered,  
“Oh, Nat? You don’t know who that new kid is do you? Blond? Does history?”  
“The boy who introduced himself in front of our entire form tutor this morning while you were too engrossed in your notebook to pay any attention?” Tony laughed awkwardly,  
“That could be the one..”  
“He’s called Steve.”


	2. Chapter 2

It was the first day for Steve at a new High School. Not exactly something that a senior expects to think but the bullying at his High School last year got so bad, especially after all the death threats, that he had to move. It was a fiasco and everyone was going to be wondering why this kid from Brooklyn was going to join the already established Senior year group for their final run through school. Still, he could hope that this year would be better than the last. It really wouldn’t take much.

When he got to the school it was immediately overwhelming. The kids bustled through the corridors with absolute certainty of where they were going and he was caught up like a feather in a storm. Steve eventually found his way to the front desk where he asked where he was supposed to go and was given the name and room of his new form tutor as well as the vague direction. Vague as in, probably within this half of the school.

Finally, once he had picked his way through the corridors and gone past more rooms than he could count, he found the classroom he needed. There were more pupils than he was expecting for a form tutor and they had all formed into their own separate groups. Closest to the door was a group of three: a red-headed girl who moved with the kind of assurance that only comes to a woman who is well aware that she is dangerous, an anxious looking boy with glasses and curly brown hair who (for his “Don’t notice me” posture) was wearing outlandishly purple pants and another dark haired boy who was bent so low over a notebook that Steve couldn’t see his face or what he was working on. 

The form tutor finally noticed the boy loitering by the door and ushered him in.   
“You must be Steven Rogers.” The man smiled, “You can call me Fury. You kids can mostly do what you want here but any problems and you come straight to me, okay?” Steve nodded and turned to find an empty seat when Fury raised his voice for the whole room to hear, “This is Steven Rogers, he’s new and is going to say a little bit about himself.” Steve froze. Those dreaded words. He turned back to the class who were mostly looking at him but still obviously having little asides to their friends. Judging him. Sizing him up. Steve felt too tall, like he wanted to disappear on the spot. If he could have burrowed into his own skin he would have but he remained all to solidly there. He was taking too long. They were judging his silence. 

Just then he noticed that the dark haired boy near the door was paying him no attention whatsoever. He was so focused on that book he had that his face was still out of sight, he wasn’t judging Steve or watching him.  
“Hi, I’m Steve. I’m from Brooklyn and I uhh, like history I guess.” He looked back at Fury and was given the nod that tells you, yeah, sure, you did a thing go get on with your life. Steve had never been more grateful for a nod and quickly found the far end of a desk from a not too intimidating seeming group. He smiled at them but nobody reacted and his smile fell to neutral as he distanced his gaze from them to some vague middle ground. 

For the morning, Steve was mostly ignored by the other students. He smiled at fewer people with each blank face that the smile met and began to regain his “don’t look at me” slouch from his old school. The last period he had before lunch was art and as he walked in there was only one seat left which he quickly tried to slip into unnoticed. Next to him sat the red haired girl from tutor who turned and smiled brightly as he sat down. He took a moment to register and smile back at her,  
“Hi, I’m Steve.”  
“I know, Brooklyn boy.” She paused, smirking, as though considering something and then turned her gaze away from him and to the teacher who was now setting up a presentation at the front of the room. She didn’t speak to Steve again for the rest of the class and he was starting to think that he’d done something wrong already but as she got up to leave for lunch she turned to him,  
“You got anyone to sit with at lunch?”   
“Uh, not really.” He hastily stuffed his books into his bag and stood to follow her,  
“I’m Nat, by the way.”

When they got to the lunch hall Nat scanned the room and grimaced,  
“Tony and Bruce, they were in form tutor, will be off in the science labs and I bet Clint’s off with Laura somewhere.. Guess it’s just the two of us then” she added lightly. Steve smiled tightly, trying to catalogue these names as they were thrown at him. In the queue, nobody seemed to acknowledge the pair but it felt safer as Steve finally wasn't all alone. They ate at a corner table on their own as Nat pointed out who to avoid because they were “the bad kind of nerd” or “brain-dead, bigotted muscle.” This was the kind of tour they don’t give students picking a new school but was the most important survival guide. 

They’d almost finished eating when Nat’s phone buzzed and she tensed up reading the message.  
“Sorry Steve, Clint’s got a bit of an issue, I have to go.”  
“Oh, no problem. Thanks, for everything.” He tried to hide his disappointment as Nat hurried out of the dining hall noting how people seemed to move aside for her in a way they never had for him. She’d only just got out of sight when he felt someone sit down at his table, rattling his lunch tray in the process. Of course, it was one of the six foot towers on Nat’s “Avoid at all costs” list. Steve strung up a smile,  
“Hi” The boy looked at him deadpan before cracking a sneer,  
“What’s up with you and the Wildcat?”  
“And who?”  
“Come on, I saw you talking to her. You think you’ve got a chance, don’t ya?” Steve blushed uncomfortably. “It’s what she does. She’ll string ya along, keep you wrapped ‘round her finger but you’ll never get anywhere. If I were you, I’d stay away from her. She’s damaged goods anyway.”  
“I don’t appreciate you talking about my friends like that.” The giant laughed,  
“Oh really? What you gonna do?” Steve glared at him for a moment, realising that it was a valid point. He was a scrawny kid who was not about to take down a mountain so he picked up his tray, turned his back and walked away down the hall.

Steve kept his head high as he walked out of the dining hall trying not to hurry or show that he was running away from a confrontation. He got as far as the end of the corridor before looking over his shoulder and, seeing that nobody was following him, running to the library to keep out of the way of anyone else like that until lunch break ended. In the library, it was easier to avoid anyone because there were quiet corners and you could move behind bookcases if you heard footsteps. He was already falling back into his habits of his old school and couldn’t stand it but what else could he have done? He kept his head down until American History that afternoon, one of his favourite subjects.


	3. Chapter 3

When Tony walked into form tutor Bruce and Nat were already at their usual table, Tony rushed up to Bruce,  
“Guess what?”   
“You didn’t sleep last night?”  
“No. Well, yes. But that’s fine I’ve had SO much coffee. Other than that!” Bruce chuckled  
“What, other than that?”  
“I got the arm to work. It drops everything it picks up but it works! The change in design you came up with yesterday was actually pretty decent.” Bruce grinned,  
“That’s amazing!”

Tony had just started to show Bruce some of the maths and design when Steve walked into the classroom and Nat immediately called out to him,  
“Hey, Steve, over here.” The boy wore a grateful smile and set himself down at the table, “This is Tony and Bruce I was telling you about yesterday. Nerds, but the good kind.” Tony looked from Steve to Nat,   
“We’ve met.” He said bluntly. Bruce gave Steve his signature open smile before going back to discussing the mechanics of the arm with Tony.   
“They’re normally at least a little more fun to be around but they’ve just had a breakthrough inventing something that’s ALREADY BEEN INVENTED.”   
“It’s not the same” Tony protested, “This isn’t based on previous designs and as soon as I can get him to work mechanically I’m going to hook him up to an AI I’m developing.” Steve raised his eyebrows but said nothing.   
“So,” Nat asked, “Do you live nearby?”  
“Yeah, we moved in over the summer, down near the church.”  
“That’s the same side of town as most of us. We’ll wait for you at the gates to walk home if you like?” Nat paused to kick the other two, “Won’t we?”   
“Yeah, absolutely” Bruce grinned as Tony muttered something that Nat took as agreement.  
“You’ll meet Clint and Laura that way too.”

When tutor had ended and Steve had left, Tony took Nat to the side.   
“Why are you so keen to buddy up to the new guy then?”   
“Thought you liked him.” She smirked.  
“I just wanted to know who he was. Anyway, the way you’re acting around him.. Especially in front of Bruce…” He trailed off. “Just.. take it easy will you, Nat?” She didn’t say anything as she turned on her heel and stalked down the corridor. She could be so sensitive sometimes. He got it, she’d been through a lot but he really didn’t want her projecting that and messing up their friendship group with some weird love polygon in their final year together but then, maybe he was messing it up by being so protective of everyone else. And did it really matter anyway now that he was late for maths?

The day was mostly a blur. It was hard to believe that by the second day of school Tony had already fallen right back into the generic monotony that was his education but here he was drifting on autopilot. Of course, the little leaps that his heart did when he saw Steve in the corridors weren’t exactly part of the day-to-day feeling and nor was the sense of dread when he saw Nat, who had been consistently ignoring him since tutor. By the end of the day he felt as though he had been living inside one of his anxiety dreams. It probably didn’t help either that the morning’s caffeine intake had worn off at around lunch time and Tony was pretty much crashed out by the time he left the school building. 

When he got to the gate Nat and Steve were already there as they’d had art together last period,  
“Sorry, about this morning.”   
“An apology from you? I need written evidence of this momentous occasion!” Nat shoved him playfully. Tony laughed,  
“We good then?”  
“Yeah, we’re always good.” At that moment Bruce reached the group,  
“Hey, what’s up?” Nat turned to him and broke into a smile,  
“Not much, how was creative writing?” Of course Nat had memorised Bruce’s timetable.  
“It was pretty good, yeah, bit weird but isn’t it always?” They laughed easily, Nat resting her hand on his shoulder. Tony looked at Steve,  
“So, art, right?” He paused awkwardly, “What do you… art?”   
“Uhh, I sketch mostly. I like portraying the human form especially in motion.” Tony nodded. “So,” Steve lowered his voice “uh, Nat and Bruce.. Are they a thing or..?”  
“That’s one of life’s great mysteries” Tony winked and immediately regretted it. Stupid tired brain.

Finally, Clint and Laura materialised,  
“New kid.” Clint looked at Natasha, “Is this Art-Steve you were talking about?”  
“Yeah, Steve, this is Clint and this is Laura. So, we going?” With Nat and Bruce engaged in a discussion about the portrayal of vampires through time in literature and Clint deep in some conversation with Laura, Tony tried to think of something to talk to Steve about but he couldn’t hold onto one train of thought until the end.   
“So, what’s this whole robotic arm thing you seem fixated on?”   
“Oh, uh, wow where to begin. I mean. It started because I was trying to make a.. A really small thing in the shed and when I focus really hard my hands sometimes shake and I kept thinking I was going to break things so I though, you know, if there was a robot arm I bet it wouldn’t shake. But my dad’s designs aren’t for anything as delicate as this so I started making my own and the more I thought about it the more it made sense to hook this up to some artificial intelligence so that it can know that it needs to be careful and what it’s doing.” Tony looked at Steve who seemed part way between interested and completely blank, “Sorry. I’m kind of bad at explaining things and bad at knowing which bits are the important things to say.”   
“No, no it’s interesting. It’s just not something I know much about.” Steve smiled reassuringly.  
“I’ll show it to you when it’s working properly.. if you like?”  
“That would be great.”

Tony had been so caught up he had once again failed to notice anything going on around him until that point. Laura and Bruce had gone their separate ways and Clint and Nat’s road was just off to the right. He raised a hand at the two as they set off down the road,  
“See you tomorrow, guys!”  
“See ya, nerd!” Nat yelled back. Tony turned to Steve,  
“So, where abouts do you live?”  
“Just down the second street on the left from here.”  
“Wait… No way that’s my street!”   
“I mean.. The street’s not yours. It’s a free country.” Tony rolled his eyes.   
“No need to get pedantic about it.” He griped, but the corners of his mouth betrayed his facade of annoyance.


	4. Chapter 4

The second that Tony and the new boy were out of sight Clint turned to Natasha,  
“Hey, Nat, what’s going on with you lately?”  
“What do you mean?”  
“I mean, you’ve been doing the thing again. You know where you try to spend all your time with people and doing something and you don’t ever just stop. And you’re using them, well, it seems like you are anyway.” He sighed, “I just worry about you, Nat. You know you can still talk to me, right? Like you used to. You can always talk to me.”  
“Thanks, Clint. I’m fine. Like. As fine as usual I guess. It’ll be fine.”  
“Okay. Just know I’ll always be in your corner, yeah.”  
“Thanks.” She smiled and blinked back a tear. “Hey, do you reckon Edie would let us make pizza and build a blanket fort in the den like we used to?”  
“I don’t see why not.”

Once they’d finished their pizza and felt the walls of the blanket sealing out the rest of the world Nat grinned.  
“I think it’s time for some girl-talk. So… How’s things with Laura?” Clint blushed and, uselessly, fought a smile,  
“Things are pretty good. Yeah.. I mean. She’s pretty and smart and funny and kind and lovely and she somehow likes me.”   
“Yeah, that last part is a wonder.” Nat smirked, “So, are you going to Winter Ball together?”  
“Dude, it’s literally September. Give me a couple months to ask her. Anyway, if we’re doing girl-talk what about you? Is it Brucey or Steve?” Nat looked away, letting her hair fall across one eye,  
“I don’t know. Ok, real talk. I think I like Bruce but in a, ugh, in a cheesy way. Like he makes me happy and I like the cute dorky way he gets excited about science and he’s just sweet but then part of it is like. You know you just want to look after him? Like do I want to date him or be his mother, you know?” Clint smiled but nodded understandingly, “And then Steve. I don’t know. He’s a mystery, I don’t know him. You know, it’s fun when you don’t know someone and you don’t have to look after them. They’re like opposites for me, but I don’t know if I really like either.”   
“I get you. Just, whatever you do. Make sure it’s what works for you. We’re still so young, breaking someone’s heart is less of a big deal than it seems. Also, if anyone hurts you I’ll break their legs.” Nat laughed,  
“I’d break their legs first.”

It was Friday, Nat was on her way to the library to get help from Bruce on her maths homework which may just have been due in that afternoon when she heard the distinctive crash of a body against the lockers which stopped in her tracks. She was going to be late to meet Bruce in the library if she took too long so she turned and ran towards the noise of a crowd gathering for a fight. Once Nat had managed to get through the crowd she saw that Jacob was standing over Steve who had a dramatic amount of blood on his face. Steve struggled to stand up, using his hands to claw up the lockers. Once he was shakily on his feet again Jacob punched him back down. Steve lay there and coughed before rolling over and struggling to stand up again.  
“I’d stay down if I were you.” The man-mountain spat.  
“Well, I’m really darn glad you’re not.” Steve winced with each word. As Jacob raised his fist again Nat stepped out of the crowd,  
“Fuck of, Jake”   
“What did you say to me.” He glared at her.  
“I said fuck off. He’s obviously not done a thing to you so get out of here before I do.”  
“Is that a threat?” Without any warning she took a step forward, kicked him in the balls and stepped back.  
“No, but that was. Stay the fuck away from him or it’ll be worse next time.” She turned and grabbed Steve’s arm, helping him up. “Come on, let’s wash your face. The blood always looks worse than it is.” 

They got to a water fountain and she helped him to wipe most of his face clean pausing when he winced as she touched a graze.   
“Those lockers can be brutal.” She mused. Once the worst of the blood was washed down the drain of a water fountain Nat looked at her watch.  
“Shit, I’m late.” She looked at Steve’s face. “I gotta go, you’ll be alright, yeah?” He nodded. “And if he does anything again tell me.” She turned and ran towards the library, she knew Bruce would wait for her but that was kind of the worst part. 

As she got into the library she immediately spotted Bruce waiting at their usual desk. He smiled and gave a little wave when he saw here but as she got closer the smile slipped.  
“Is that blood?” He pointed to a smudge of crimson on her shirt.  
“Oh,” She blotted at it furiously. “Yeah, I had a little bit of a delay getting here. Stop looking so worried. Jacob was being an ass to Steve and I gave him a whack.”  
“That’ll improve his reputation. Defended by a girl.”  
“Oh, shut up and tell me what in the hell a three dimensional vector is and why I have to care?” He laughed and got out his notes to help explain.   
“They’re really not as bad as they seem.”

Sitting in the library with Bruce reminded Natasha of two things. Firstly, of how bad at any maths excluding calculus she was and secondly, the contrast between him and Steve. She had gone from cleaning blood of a sharp jawline to brushing hands with a bespectacled nerd over a past paper. Just as they got to the end of the final question Bruce looked as though he was about to ask something but the bell rang causing them both to jump.   
“I’m gonna be late to maths!”   
“I’ll walk with you if you like.”  
“Isn’t physics in the opposite direction for you?” Bruce smiled and shrugged.  
“Yeah. So?” Nat grinned.  
“Sure.”

**Author's Note:**

> This is the first fic I've written in a long time. Any comments would be really appreciated!!! Also, i will try to update every 1-3 days or so
> 
> Hope you enjoyed the first bit :)


End file.
